Minor Parties in Congress

In 1995 eleven smaller parties were represented in Congress, of which
five are noteworthy.

Liberal Party

Deputy Alvaro Valle (PDS-Rio de
Janeiro) founded the center-right
Liberal Party (Partido Liberal--PL) in 1985. Dubbed the businessman's
Workers' Party, the Liberal Party rapidly supplanted the Liberal Front
Party (Partido da Frente Liberal--PFL) in São
Paulo. In the elections
of November 15, 1986, the Liberal Party secured seven seats in the
Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate. It received 4.8 percent of
the national vote in 1990 and elected fifteen deputies. On taking their
seats in February 1991, the new Liberal Party deputies joined the
opposition bloc against Collor. In 1994 the Liberal Party elected no
governors, one senator, and thirteen deputies.

Party of National Reconstruction

Created in February 1989 by a takeover of the Youth Party as an
election vehicle for Collor's candidacy, the conservative Party of
National Reconstruction (Partido da Reconstrução Nacional--PRN)
immediately received twenty deputies and two senators. After Collor's
election, the party increased its congressional delegation in 1990, but
had a dismal performance in the October 3 elections that year: forty
deputies and only 7 percent of the vote, and no governors. In 1994 the
party, reduced to four deputies and four senators, elected one federal
and two state deputies.

Brazilian Socialist Party

Resurrected in 1986 from the pre-1964 Socialist Party, the left-wing
Brazilian Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Brasileiro--PSB) elected
seven representatives to the ANC (National Constituent Assembly). It
joined the Brazilian Popular Front (Frente Brasil Popular--FBP)
coalition in 1989 in support of Lula, and again in 1994. With 2.3
percent of the national vote in 1990, the PSB elected eleven deputies,
including twice governor of Pernambuco Miguel Arraes, PSB president. The
PSB, which has a more pragmatic socialism than the Workers' Party,
contributed two ministers to Franco's cabinet. In 1994 the PSB elected
two governors (including Arraes), one senator, and fifteen federal
deputies.

Brazilian Communist Party

In 1993 the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista
Brasileiro--PCB), in a stormy national convention led by its president,
Deputy Roberto Freire, removed Marxist-Leninist doctrine from the party
statutes and the hammer and sickle from its flag, and changed its name
to the PPS (Popular Socialist Party). The original PCB had been
organized in 1922. At Moscow's initiative, Luis Carlos Prestes took over
the PCB's leadership in the mid-1930s. Prestes presided over the party
until the early 1980s, when he was ousted by a renovated Euro-communist
faction that had tired of his Stalinist line. During its illegal period
(1948-85), the PCB was able to elect a few of its members under other
party labels. The PCB regained legal registry in 1985, elected three
representatives to the ANC in 1986, and again in 1990, always in
coalitions. Deputy Freire carried the PCB banner as candidate for
president in 1989, and became floor leader of the Franco government in
1992. In 1994 the PPS joined the FBP in support of Lula and elected one
senator (Freire) and only two federal deputies.

Communist Party of Brazil

The Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil--PC do B)
was created as an underground splinter from the PCB in 1958, following
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's denunciations of Stalinist atrocities.
The PC do B repudiated the new Moscow line and aligned itself with
Maoism. When the People's Republic of China began making economic
reforms in 1979, the PC do B aligned itself with Albania. When Albania
held its first free elections in 1992, the PC do B became nonaligned.
After the PC do B was legalized in 1985, under the leadership of former
deputy and former guerrilla João Amazonas, it elected more deputies in
1986 and 1990 than its arch rival, the PCB. The PC do B joined the FBP
in support of Lula in 1989 and 1994. The PC do B doubled its delegation
from five to ten federal deputies, representing nine states, in 1994.
This feat resulted from PC do B domination of student organizations in
most states and astute use of coalitions.